Meet the Mushroom Fly Team

Clare H. Scott Chialvo, Ph.D.

Evolutionary Biologist/Ecologist
Postdoctoral Research Associate

clare.scott <at> ua.edu
Current CV

Current Graduate and Undergraduate Students

Logan Griffin

University Scholar (Master's Student)
Logan joined the mushroom fly team as an undergraduate and entered the University Scholar program in May 2017. His research is  focused on addressing a question related to the gut microbiome in Drosophila: Does the gut microbiome contribute to mushroom toxin tolerance in a local population of Drosophila tripunctata?

Jordan Beveridge

Undergraduate Student
Jordan joined the mushroom fly group in fall 2108. She is working together with Bailey and Lauren to assess the physiological mechanism(s) of toxin tolerance in the 8 species of mushroom-feeding Drosophila from the immigrans-tripunctata radiation found in Eastern North America. Currently they are working on determining the optimal conditions to generate tissue samples for metabolomic, transcriptomic, and qRT-PCR analyses.

Olivia Fish

Undergraduate Student
Olivia joined the mushroom fly group in fall 2017. She has been working to generate tissue samples for a transcriptome based phylogeny of the immigrans-tripunctata radiation. She and Sarah-Ashley are preparing to assess cyclopeptide tolerance in 17 species in the ​radiation that have not previously been tested for this adaptation. This fall, Olivia will be sequencing the genome of two Drosophila ​species that occur in the radiation.

Sarah-Ashley Giambrone

Undergraduate Student
Sarah-Ashely joined the mushroom fly group in spring 2018. She has been working with Logan to assess whether the gut microbiome contributes to toxin tolerance in a natural population of D. tripunctata. Currently, she and Olivia are finishing the generation of tissue samples for the transcriptome phylogeny. They are also determining the optimal conditions for assessing cyclopeptide tolerance in 17 species in the immigrans-tripunctata ​radiation that have not previously been tested for this adaptation.

Lauren Haynes

Randall Research Scholar (Undergraduate Student)
Lauren joined the mushroom fly group in fall 2108. She is working together with Bailey and Jordan to assess the physiological mechanism(s) of toxin tolerance in the 8 species of mushroom-feeding Drosophila from the immigrans-tripunctata radiation found in Eastern North America. Currently they are working on determining the optimal conditions to generate tissue samples for metabolomic, transcriptomic, and qRT-PCR analyses.

Bailey Lose

Emerging Scholar (Undergraduate Student)
Bailey joined the mushroom fly group in fall 2108. She is working together with Lauren and Jordan to assess the physiological mechanism(s) of toxin tolerance in the 8 species of mushroom-feeding Drosophila from the immigrans-tripunctata radiation found in Eastern North America. Currently they are working on determining the optimal conditions to generate tissue samples for metabolomic, transcriptomic, and qRT-PCR analyses.

Former Students

Olivia Sorrell

Currently enrolled in University of Alabama - Birmingham Dental School
B.S. Fall 2016
Olivia's research project focused on quantifying genetic variation of toxin tolerance in a local population of Drosophila tripunctata and characterizing the impact of inhibiting two detoxification gene families (Cytochrome P450s and Glutathione S-Transferases) on toxin tolerance in the same population.